N_C

TOPIC DELETED & CLOSED. I decided not to proceed with this any further. Hope that makes most of you happy, I'm done with this issue. You won. I lost. You were right, I was wrong. I am sorry I ever thought up this stupid idea. Guess I was the idiot here. Enjoy the victory.

AndrewP

The trouble with laws like this is that the police dont have time or the will to enforce them. Check how many people have been fined in the last 10 years for riding a bike on the sidewalk. I expect a helmet law would have a lower level of enforcement.

I think your efforts would be more effective if you pushed the education authority to include safe cycling in their phys ed program.

Best wishes & Good luck

N_C

TOPIC DELETED & CLOSED. I decided not to proceed with this any further. Hope that makes most of you happy, I'm done with this issue. You won. I lost. You were right, I was wrong. I am sorry I ever thought up this stupid idea. Guess I was the idiot here. Enjoy the victory.

chicharron

" << "For those of you who are anti-helmet, anti-helmet law, etc, please stay out of this one.">> Well,Mr.N.C. How very demecratic of you. You express your opinion on a talk board, but no one is allowed to post on your thread to disagree with you. By what I have read on your post, do I understand that this ordinance you propose is not in place yet? So, you will still have to deal with the demecratic form of government that you apparently disdain and have so much contempt for.
As far as being prepared to wear a helmet or being fined, it isn't law yet, so your's is an empty threat. Oh, by the way, "Sieg Heil"

chicharron

volunteer. What that means is if she is doing her volunteer duty & she sees someone illegally parked in a handi-cap parking spot she write a citation for it. In the state of Iowa it is a auto-matic $100.00 fine.">>Does Barney Fife help train the volunteer helmet police?

N_C

TOPIC DELETED & CLOSED. I decided not to proceed with this any further. Hope that makes most of you happy, I'm done with this issue. You won. I lost. You were right, I was wrong. I am sorry I ever thought up this stupid idea. Guess I was the idiot here. Enjoy the victory.

N_C

TOPIC DELETED & CLOSED. I decided not to proceed with this any further. Hope that makes most of you happy, I'm done with this issue. You won. I lost. You were right, I was wrong. I am sorry I ever thought up this stupid idea. Guess I was the idiot here. Enjoy the victory.

Raiyn

"Demecratic" eh?
Did Lil' Abner help teach you grammar and spelling?
It's also funny that you missed the clearly labeld link that would allow you to skip the whole <<>> thing.

primaryreality

I'm all in favor of helmets, and even enforcement, but I'm having trouble visualizing this volunteer thing working. Leaving citations on parked cars is one thing, but how are you going to ticket a moving cyclist who doesn't feel like stopping to cooperate while you write him up? What are you going to do--take down his license number?

N_C

TOPIC DELETED & CLOSED. I decided not to proceed with this any further. Hope that makes most of you happy, I'm done with this issue. You won. I lost. You were right, I was wrong. I am sorry I ever thought up this stupid idea. Guess I was the idiot here. Enjoy the victory.

Raiyn

<Sarcasm> There's much to be said for tasers. </sarcasm>

phinney

Helmets are just a band-aid for the real problem. How about a city wide ban on cycling?

crazybikerchick

Why do you feel the need to have a bike helmet ordinance in your community (just curious)?

If you wear your helmet and encourage your friends to wear helmets, and even encourage every cyclist you see to wear a helmet, why does it matter to you if some of them choose not to do it?

It can discourage cycling to have it mandatory, would you feel safer with less cyclists on the road? Not just because some cyclists don't want to wear helmets, or can't afford a helmet, or whatever - but also for the perception of the safety of cycling. Hmm cycling is not as safe as walking or driving because I have to wear a helmet but don't have to wear a helmet doing those activities (which incidentally have higher rates of head injury), and I really don't want to do something unsafe, so I won't cycle.

Sorry I'm not anti-helmet, but definitely anti-helmet law though I guess you told both to stay out of the thread

Placid Casual

You first.



Clearly labed? What sort of lips does it have?

scoana

1984

Raiyn

Your second post and already biting off more than you can chew. Bravo

mr_tom

How charming. Is your community full of busybodies, or is it just you?

Daily Commute

By pushing for a helmet law, you are "entic[ing] a fight over this subject" and you are "starting one." It's funny, you don't want your critics to participate in a discussion, but you want to force your critics to ride the way you want them to under threat of arrest.

MichaelW

How do these local ordinances work with regard to cyclists riding through your town from out of your jurisdiction?

I-Like-To-Bike

Your "disclaimer" doesn't alter the obvious strident beligerency of your post on this subject.

Of course you are looking for a fight. Any other Iowans join you in your campaign? Maybe you can plot strategy down at the beer hall.

filtersweep

Why not just ban bikes from the streets if safety is the concern? Ban bikes after dark? Legislated absurdly high safety standards of lighting at night? Legislate full-face helmets? Body armor?

Sorry to be crass, but legislation is the lazy way out....

I always wear my helmet-- BTW.

Placid Casual

Assumes facts not in evidence.

dwightonabike

Does it upset you that much to see someone riding without a helmet?

I'd love to see some bozo without a badge and gun try to stop me and write me a citation!

Aahzz

You really need to learn how to spell "labeled" before playing spelling police.

Little Darwin

I am in favor of helmet laws, so the following is not to back up a hidden agenda, but I think this is a bad idea.

First, a couple of points that I think are relevant concerning volunteer enforcement in general.

First, it is just silly to have volunteers enforce the law. It puts a person trying to do what is right at risk of assault for daring to ticket a sociopath's car.

Second, unless it applies to all laws, then it is proclaiming that certain laws are worthy of extra resources... If laws aren't worth spending the resources, I favor eliminating them.

If the above is off base, I would caution against the ordinance in the case of bicycle helmets for two reasons.

The first is simply related to some motorists' attitudes about bicyclists. I could just see the morons you read about in the other threads here if you gave them the power to give cyclists tickets. After all if you have a helmet ordinance, it must specify to wear the helmet properly on the head (either explicit or implicit) or it does no good... So it would take several cyclists fighting a particular issuer of tickets before a vendetta would be obvious... How would the court easily know the difference between a diligent enforcer and an idiot with an agenda.

But, the biggest reason is safety, since cyclists aren't usually sitting still. I could just see it now, a well intentioned soccer mom in a minivan chasing down a kid on a bike to give him a ticket "for his own good"... or the hypothetical idiot from the preceding paragraph exercising his right to cite the cyclist by "getting his attention."

Then another thought just came to mind, we would also have to modify our training of kids to stay away from strangers. The rule applies unless they are going to give you a ticket... This will work until the child abusers figure out that if they pretend to give a ticket, they have leverage to get close to the child.

Although I applaud the thought of helmets being encouraged at all levels, including helmet laws, I think this attempt has serious issues because of the "volunteer" element.